Thomas Hancock, (born May 8, 1786, Marlborough, Wiltshire, Eng.—died March 26, 1865, London) English inventor and manufacturer who founded the British rubber industry. His chief invention, the “masticator,” worked rubber scraps into a shredded mass of rubber that could be formed into blocks or rolled into sheets. This process, perfected in 1821, led to a partnership with the Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof fabrics, Charles Macintosh. The best known of the waterproofed articles they produced were macintosh coats, popularly known as mackintoshes.

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Dec. 29, 1766 Glasgow July 25, 1843 near Glasgow Scottish chemist, best known for his invention in 1823 of a method for making waterproof garments by using rubber dissolved in coal-tar naphtha for cementing two pieces of cloth together. The mackintosh garment was named for him.

waterproof outercoat or raincoat, named after a Scottish chemist, Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), who invented the waterproof material that bears his name. The fabric used for a mackintosh was made waterproof by cementing two thicknesses of it together with rubber dissolved in a coal-tar...

Important progress toward a true rubber industry came at the beginning of the 19th century from the separate experiments of a Scottish chemist, Charles Macintosh, and an English inventor, Thomas Hancock. Macintosh’s contribution was the rediscovery, in 1823, of coal-tar naphtha as a cheap and effective solvent. He placed a solution of rubber and naphtha between two fabrics and in so doing...